Deciding Whether to Hire One or Multiple Consultants
Deciding to engage one or multiple vendors to support a transformation program depends a lot on your organization and the scope. Let's take a look at each option and its advantages and challenges, then look at a few questions to ask to help the decision making process.
Hiring a Single Firm
You may have heard that "no one gets fired for choosing IBM". Whether you agree with that is a different story.
The benefits of this approach is that it can:
Streamline conversations
Centralize project management
Drive efficiency, especially by offloading responsibility.
However, it also comes with challenges:
Finding a firm that excels in every area you need can be hard to impossible
Firms that have multiple specialties are expensive and often do engage in lower market segments
Introduces risk in what is delivered unless oversight exists
This approach works well in three scenarios:
Pure execution: you already know what and how something needs to be done, but don't have bandwidth (e.g. outsourcing marketing content creation)
Tight scope: you have a scope limited to one or two domains (e.g. refresh the brand identity and overhaul the website)
High complexity: you have a multi-phase program that touches many or all parts of the organization and could never do it yourself (e.g. modernize CRM, ERP, and e-commerce for a multinational B2B/B2C brand)
Hiring Multiple Firms
Composing a stable of specialists allows you to optimize for different levers within the "pick two" of quality, budget, and time spent.
The benefits of this approach is that it can:
Match you with a firm that can deliver on those at the level you need
Switch firms as needed without putting the entire program at risk
Adapt as your transformation evolves to get the right expertise at each stage
However, it too comes with challenges:
Overseeing multiple vendors and coordinating them is resource intensive
Conflicts will arise that you need to manage (whereas a single firm model would likely handle those within itself)
Timelines might naturally extend due to dependencies and availability
This approach works well in three scenarios:
Strong management: you have the internal capability to manage projects and programs well, which reduces the risk of multiple vendors executing concurrently (e.g. coordinating a web agency, CRM implementer, and brand strategy team)
Specialized expertise: you require niche skills that are not possible to find in a single firm (e.g. a COBOL developer, CRM implementer, and a digital agency for a regional bank)
High quality: you need the highest level of quality across multiple domains (e.g. launching a revolutionary hardware product supported by software)
Questions to Ask
If you answered yes to most of these, you're likely equipped to hire multiple firms.
Do you have a clear vision of where you want your organization to be?
Does your organization have a collaborative leadership team?
Do you have in-house expertise in managing multi-department projects?
Do you know the sequence of projects needed to maximize value as a program progresses?
Has your team worked (well) with multiple consultants before?
Are you aware of the technology platforms available to support your vision?
TLDR: Multiple firms yield better outcomes if you're prepared for it. Single firms can work as well for the shoulder cases (small scope, huge complexity).